Is it just me, or are Apple’s new iPods sorta disappointing?
The Shuffle hasn’t changed. The Nano does video and has a new interface, but looks fat and ugly (best comment I’ve seen about it: “does it do the truffle shuffle?”). What’s now called the “Classic” has the new interface and looks pretty good, and got a storage increase, which is nice, but for me, not worth upgrading for.
What will be talked about most is the new iPod Touch. It is, almost literally, an iPhone without the phone. It has all the stuff that people have been asking for in the top-of-the-line iPod for years: A giant touch screen, a snazzy new interface, and most importantly, a wireless internet connection to connect to the iTunes store directly (and, I pray to Jobs, sync with a computer wirelessly). It even has some cool stuff nobody expected, like having a web browser and doing fun stuff while in a Starbucks location.
This is all awesome. If it stopped there, and we used logical assumptions to fill in the blanks, I’d currently be putting my old iPod and a few internal organs up on Ebay in order to pay whatever it could possibly cost to get my hands on one. Unfortunately, one of those logical assumptions turns out to be false. I’m talking about storage capacity. This is the most advanced, most expensive iPod ever. It looks like an iPhone, but its focus is on music and video. So you’d expect it to hold the most songs and videos, at least as much if not more than the Classic. But this assumption is wrong. The biggest Touch is only 16GB.
It looks like they took the “iPhone without the phone” part a bit too literally. Why would I want this new iPod, then, if it does less than the iPhone, but doesn’t do much more? This sentiment is enhanced by the fact that Apple has also announced that the Touch’s WiFi capabilities will be immediately available on the iPhone as well, and it has just dropped in price to only $100 more than the Touch.
I’d rather pay $100 more for the same device with a phone. But I’ll do neither, not only because the iPhone still isn’t available in Canada, but because 8GB, or even 16GB, isn’t enough space to hold even a medium-sized music collection. Mine is already bigger than the previous 80GB ceiling, so even if I could afford it, using the Touch or iPhone as my primary iPod just isn’t practical.
Why can’t Apple just make one device that does everything? Fix the stupid problems with the iPhone, add a 160GB drive to it, and nobody could resist it.
Phronk.com 
Comments
16 responses to “Rotten Apple”
Here Here! Well said babe.But, if we don’t keep shelling out for upgrades, poor Steve won’t be able to move into a bigger house, and lord knows he needs the space.
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Here Here! Well said babe.But, if we don’t keep shelling out for upgrades, poor Steve won’t be able to move into a bigger house, and lord knows he needs the space.
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my iPod mini of 4 yrs just died on me, it was a 4G and I didn’t mind replacing the music in it every other month or so… I like the new iPod Touch and will probably get it at the end of the month when it comes out… but like you, I’m wondering why they can’t make it any bigger than 16G, it seems a tad lazy on their part.
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my iPod mini of 4 yrs just died on me, it was a 4G and I didn’t mind replacing the music in it every other month or so… I like the new iPod Touch and will probably get it at the end of the month when it comes out… but like you, I’m wondering why they can’t make it any bigger than 16G, it seems a tad lazy on their part.
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if they had of even just included in the new itouch an 80gb hard drive I probably would have upgraded (eventhough I dont need to), but since they sold the new itouch far too short they probably wont get an upgrade from me until my current ipod (bought a year ago) dies.too bad for appleKevBowashed.ca
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if they had of even just included in the new itouch an 80gb hard drive I probably would have upgraded (eventhough I dont need to), but since they sold the new itouch far too short they probably wont get an upgrade from me until my current ipod (bought a year ago) dies.too bad for appleKevBowashed.ca
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Good post. Nice to see Steve Job’s reality distortion field is weakening.With the iPhones, he’s marketing to people who don’t need/want Blackberries, Nokias or other forms of heavy industry smart phones. Or people who find those phones just plain ugly (me!). He recoginzes the ‘cool factor’ with the iPhone and transfers that over to a “vanity” iPod. The minis sold incredibly well, like the Nanos. I bet you, regardless of the memory size, the Touch will too.Plus, it’s hackable. You’ll certainly be able to add your own apps to it, much like the iPhone.As for the flash memory, I wonder how fat the Touch would be with a disk drive. Plus he had to jump from development to build and at that time (a few months ago?) that’s the largest flash memory he probably could get mass produced.I’m speculating, of course.
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Good post. Nice to see Steve Job’s reality distortion field is weakening.With the iPhones, he’s marketing to people who don’t need/want Blackberries, Nokias or other forms of heavy industry smart phones. Or people who find those phones just plain ugly (me!). He recoginzes the ‘cool factor’ with the iPhone and transfers that over to a “vanity” iPod. The minis sold incredibly well, like the Nanos. I bet you, regardless of the memory size, the Touch will too.Plus, it’s hackable. You’ll certainly be able to add your own apps to it, much like the iPhone.As for the flash memory, I wonder how fat the Touch would be with a disk drive. Plus he had to jump from development to build and at that time (a few months ago?) that’s the largest flash memory he probably could get mass produced.I’m speculating, of course.
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Oh, you’re such a cyber hacker man! I bet the babes love it!
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Oh, you’re such a cyber hacker man! I bet the babes love it!
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There was an article in the car section of <>The Globe and Mail<> today about a joint iCar venture between Apple and VW.I think you predicted that a few weeks ago.
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There was an article in the car section of The Globe and Mail today about a joint iCar venture between Apple and VW.I think you predicted that a few weeks ago.
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Shora: Yeah, but he’s Steve Jobs! People would give him money if he announced the release of Apple paperclips.Sharkboy: Sucks that the mini died on you…those are usually pretty durable. I’m not down with replacing my music with a subset of it every once in a while. Sometimes I get an urge for something specific, and I want it to definitely be there if I need it.Kevbo: My thoughts exactly. It’s like they spread the features I want over several products (i.e. touch screen, big capacity), so I can’t possibly buy any of them.Dead Robot & Sarah: Yeah, I’m sure it’ll get hacked by the super hardcore types. But casual hardcore people like me won’t be into it because they need more storage. The average person will probably like it too, because most people don’t have 16gb of music. Still, an 80gb version couldn’t’ve been too much thicker. The 80gb Classic is tiny.Madame: Awesome. Hopefully it won’t look awesome and have a great sound system, but only go 50 km/h.
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Shora: Yeah, but he’s Steve Jobs! People would give him money if he announced the release of Apple paperclips.Sharkboy: Sucks that the mini died on you…those are usually pretty durable. I’m not down with replacing my music with a subset of it every once in a while. Sometimes I get an urge for something specific, and I want it to definitely be there if I need it.Kevbo: My thoughts exactly. It’s like they spread the features I want over several products (i.e. touch screen, big capacity), so I can’t possibly buy any of them.Dead Robot & Sarah: Yeah, I’m sure it’ll get hacked by the super hardcore types. But casual hardcore people like me won’t be into it because they need more storage. The average person will probably like it too, because most people don’t have 16gb of music. Still, an 80gb version couldn’t’ve been too much thicker. The 80gb Classic is tiny.Madame: Awesome. Hopefully it won’t look awesome and have a great sound system, but only go 50 km/h.
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I bought the Ipod touch. I’m waiting for it to arrive.
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I bought the Ipod touch. I’m waiting for it to arrive.
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